‘Singh has the right of it,’ Vale agreed. He paused to knock aside a cobra with the remains of the table. ‘I suggest we retreat and call the fire brigade.’
‘That sounds good to me,’ Irene said quickly, before anyone could change their minds. The sooner she was away from flames, snakes, insects and whatever – and able to question Zayanna – the better. ‘And then we can get some answers.’
Half an hour later they were in the upper room of a nearby pub. The fire brigade had been called (and had been in time to save the rest of the neighbourhood), Zayanna’s minions were in custody at Scotland Yard, and Zayanna herself was sitting up and demanding gin.
Irene had searched the room and dumped any printed paper in the corridor outside. She hoped that would cut down on the risk of Alberich interfering. She hoped even more fervently that he wouldn’t be trying to find her, and that he’d assume she was still in prison back in St Petersburg.
Vale had turned up the ether-lights and drawn the curtains, cutting out the light from the warehouse-fire outside. The sound of fire engines and crowds drifted through the window. Zayanna had draped herself over one of the rickety chairs in the centre of the room and sat there smoothing her skirts, her new brand scarlet on her neck. Irene sat facing her, while Kai stood by the door and Singh and Vale hovered watchfully.
Zayanna had completely recovered her good mood, in spite of having lost her pets and probably her cash reserves. No doubt it was because she was the centre of attention. No Fae could resist that. ‘I suppose I could tentatively surrender, darling,’ she suggested. ‘It’d be difficult for me to manage to kill you now.’
‘You did try your best,’ Irene agreed. ‘I’ll give you extra points for effort. And I did just save your life.’
‘It was only in danger because you’d captured me anyhow. So what now?’ Zayanna tilted her head enquiringly. ‘Do I get imprisoned?’
‘“Killed” sounds more appropriate,’ Kai said coldly. Irene had agreed with him that he’d be the bad cop to her good cop. But from the tone of his voice she was worried that he’d be an extremely homicidal cop.
Zayanna batted her eyelashes. ‘Are you threatening to kill me in cold blood? In front of an officer of the law? Isn’t that illegal?’
‘You’re right, madam,’ Singh said. ‘I’m absolutely shocked to hear those sorts of threats. Mr Strongrock, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I should go and check on the firemen. Let me know when I should come back in.’
‘Don’t bother,’ Zayanna said sourly. ‘You’ve made your point. So, Irene. You said you wanted me to surrender. I’m surrendering. What happens now?’
‘Tell me about Alberich,’ Irene said. The name was bitter in her mouth. ‘What’s he doing?’
‘Trying to destroy the Library, darling,’ Zayanna said. Then, after a pause, ‘. . . oh, you want details?’
‘Yes.’ Irene kept her voice patient. ‘And, Zayanna, let me be clear about this. I’m saving your life. In return I want the full truth, and I want you to be helpful about giving it to me.’
‘Saving my life?’ Zayanna pouted. ‘I know that you did destroy Alberich’s curse, and that I did cause you a few problems and everything, but would you really kill me?’
‘Yes,’ Irene said. The word came out with difficulty. She looked Zayanna squarely in the eyes. ‘Listen to me, because I am being absolutely truthful. The Library is more important to me than you are. If I have to, I will give you to the dragons, or I will sell you to Lord Silver, or I will shoot you in person. That’s three things that could kill you. I’m the only person in this room who’s actually interested in keeping you alive.’ She saw doubt in Zayanna’s eyes and shifted to the Language, making the words a promise and a truth. ‘If you don’t tell me what I want to know about Alberich, then I am going to kill you.’ Zayanna flinched back against her chair, as if Irene was the poisonous snake and she was the threatened victim. Perhaps it was the Language. Or perhaps it was something in Irene’s face. ‘Don’t!’ she cried out. ‘Please!’
‘Vale.’ Irene extended her hand. ‘Your gun, please.’
Vale slapped his pistol into her hand without a word.
He doesn’t think I’d really do it. He thinks I’m bluffing to convince her.
Irene thought of the darkened corridors and rooms in the Library, of the gate going up in flames and of the list of dead Librarians. She raised the gun to point it directly at Zayanna.
Zayanna stared at the gun. She wasn’t doing her usual trick of playing with her ringlets. Her hands tightened on the sides of the chair, and her breath was fast and panicked. ‘I—’ She swallowed. ‘All right!’ She flung herself from her chair, going on her knees in front of Irene. ‘I’ll tell you what I know, and I swear I’ll tell you the truth. I surrender. I really do surrender.’
Irene handed the gun back to Vale, trying to calm her racing heartbeat. That had been too close. She had never thought of herself as the sort of person who was genuinely ready to kill for information. She’d manage a few convincing threats, maybe, but those would just be bluffs. It was an unpleasant surprise to find out that she was ready for lethal action, and that she’d go through with it so easily, so unhesitatingly. ‘Get up,’ she said wearily. ‘Back in your chair, please. I accept your surrender, but you have to tell me the whole truth.’
Zayanna picked herself off the floor and slid back into her chair, her stockings miraculously unladdered. ‘What he’s doing is—’
There was a banging at the door. ‘Gentleman for Mr Strongrock!’ the barmaid from downstairs shouted.
Irene turned – well, everyone turned – to stare at Kai. Even Zayanna looked interested, though possibly because the interruption took the pressure off her.
Kai himself looked dumbfounded. ‘I didn’t tell anyone to meet me here,’ he protested. ‘How could I have? I didn’t know we were going to be here.’
This could be a cunning ploy to get into the room and kill them all. Or it could be a genuine message for Kai, in which case it was almost certainly from his family or Li Ming. And in that case, Irene needed to hear it. ‘Let’s see who it is,’ she suggested.
It was Li Ming, led by a curious barmaid, dapper in his usual grey and with an attaché case in one hand. While he didn’t actually look around the room and sniff in disgust, clearly it was only because he was far too polite to do so. ‘Your highness,’ he addressed Kai. ‘I hope that I have not come at an inconvenient time.’
‘Your presence is always welcome,’ Kai said, court-trained manners coming to his rescue as he closed the door and shut out the barmaid. ‘We were just interrogating this Fae.’